


Pacific Rim au

by JanaRumpandRCJawnn (JanaRumpandRCJawwn)



Series: WIP collection [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim, Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:53:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29380224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanaRumpandRCJawwn/pseuds/JanaRumpandRCJawnn
Summary: The building’s lobby was already a bit colder than the halls, which was good. His therapist said that Yuuri had to attach himself to the present when the ghost drifting got too bad, focus on the cold, focus on the lights shining from the ceiling, focus on his doorman standing at the entrance talking to Viktor Nikiforov- The last one had him freeze on his tracks, blinking hard quite a few times....Yuuri quit being a ranger, but now in what could be the end of the world Viktor asks him to come back.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Series: WIP collection [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2158185
Kudos: 5





	Pacific Rim au

**Author's Note:**

> Call you tell that's a working title?

No one could ever go back home, but it hurts particularly when there’s no home to go back to at all. 

Hasetsu had been leveled to the ground back when it all began. Yuuri had been no more than fourteen, he remembered hiding with his parents, Mari and everyone else in a bunker. There had been other attacks around the Pacific already, so the government had taken some measures, because when one or two monsters came up who knew if others would follow. All the same he was terrified. He had never seen him parents crying before, and Mari’s silence had never been so grave. 

In the end, it had been one of their recently built Jaegers that defeated the menace. By then the kaiju blood had infected the waters and it’s carcass made everything in miles smell terrible. It wasn’t livable anymore, so his family got moved into the continent.

Yuuri had wished so much back then that they’d had a Jaeger in dock, ready to protect all of them. For years he had worked towards that, to be there for people in their time of need, and had succeeded. But now here he was, back to that same apartment they’d gotten fifteen years ago, watching on the TV as people talked about Scorpio King’s newest win against a category 3. It felt strange seeing baby Yuri all grown up, though as disagreeable as ever. 

Next to him Mari smiled, not mentioning the elephant in the room. She hadn’t questioned it when he came back, no one in their family had, really, and he didn’t have the words to say how thankful he was for that. They had joined him on the funeral, had kept the press away and firmly denied any possibility of him agreeing to interviews - it has been years since Yuuri said anything to those vultures, back when Yuuko had needed him to along the whole pregnancy scandal, the least he could have done for her after so many years of support in and out of drift.

“The kid seems good at this. Wasn’t he the cute one that kept following you around the base? Mr. Plisetsky’s grandkid, ain’t it?” His mother commented while bringing everyone their dinner. They had never spent much time at the base, but when Yuuri had first gone to live at the Tokyo Shatterdome he used to tell them everything. It was hard seeing Yuri in a jaeger, hard unseeing the little boy who used to stare in awe at him and Yuuko and ask endless questions about their jaeger model. 

“Yeah, that’s Yuri. Wouldn’t have guessed Mila to be his drift partner, but I suppose no one else could quite sync with him.” Yuuri could remember Yuri running after Viktor, trying to get the older pilot to be his partner. Viktor would just smile and call him adorable, saying that if he tried hard perhaps he’d think about the kid's case. Back then Yuuri had still been dazed by it all, filled with the heroic dreams of a young man, now he was almost angry that Nikolai and Admiral Baranovskaya had allowed the boy to become a ranger indeed. After that night out of the coast of Thailand everything was encased in a new, tragically unflattering light. 

His father changed the channel while he zoned out, and Yuuri was thankful for it. Watching Jaeger news was never a fun ride, and that was mostly all the television ever showed even now with public opinion about the program in a limbo. Perhaps it was for the best that they stop all this and give up, but then the Wall wouldn’t hold up one single attack on its own. Kaiju wouldn’t stop because of bricks, not when they could do things like shoot acid or crack open a Jaeger’s metal shell like breaking an egg. 

_They were gritting their teeth, this Kaiju was just too big. They were tired, adrenaline all that kept them going, and they just wanted to shove their sword down the thing’s throat already. “Going in for the kill!” He’d said, or maybe she had, the drift was too thorough to know for certain. Sword out they ran towards it-_

Yuuri stopped himself, blinking a couple of times and getting up from the kotatsu. Everyone was staring at him, not judgemental but so nakedly concerned. He couldn’t stay here, it was too much, suddenly he couldn’t breathe right. 

He muttered his apologies as he went to the door, shoved on his boots and grabbed for a coat. These walks had become a habit since he returned, as common as the ghost drifting. The cold air helped him concentrate on the present, helped keep the panic-grief-desperation at bay. Some neighbors crossed his path but none dared say anything. Maybe Yuuri should have thought to take a beanie, the scars always freaked people out, but what did they expect, really? For someone who’d had several direct encounters with giant raging monsters, escaping with half his face intact was more than many could claim.

The building’s lobby was already a bit colder than the halls, which was good. His therapist said that Yuuri had to attach himself to the present when the ghost drifting got too bad, focus on the cold, focus on the lights shining from the ceiling, focus on his doorman standing at the entrance talking to Viktor Nikiforov- The last one had him freeze on his tracks, blinking hard quite a few times. Yuuri had not seen him since the funeral, and that seemed like it had been a decade ago. Viktor was wearing that long beige overcoat he always did on the rare occasion he left the base on the colder months, just as ragged as the tired look on his face. 

“Viktor?” He called out, still dazed, unsure if he could trust his own eye. 

The other pilot turned to him and gave Yuuri a smile, making his heart skip a beat even after years sharing a shatterdome. “Yuuri. I was looking for you.” His smile never quite did reach his eyes, Yuuri noticed. 

He wasn’t sure how to react to that other than with an empty smile of his own. They had never talked much, Yuuri too wary of his persistent crush, too aware of the mess he made of himself every time they found themselves alone. Still, there was a weird intimacy in knowing how it really was in the jaegers that bound all the rangers together, and something else still in them being two of the only three survivors of that forsaken night. “You found me then.” 

“So I have.” For a moment they just looked at each other in silence, until Viktor broke it with all the composure he’d never have. “Were you going out?”

“Yeah, I was going for a walk.” Yuuri’s mind jumped from one reason to another as for why Viktor was there, and none of the possibilities were good.

“Mind if I join you?” His everything exuded public relations training, the open posture, the light expression. Yuuri just found it hollow, but who was him to judge.

There was a time where he would have combusted in embarrassment and anxiety to have _the_ Viktor Nikiforov wanting to join him for anything. Right now he just nodded and walked out, being followed by the silent but steady presence of the other man. 

The town itself was covered in neon, people walking around to theirs jobs and houses, not paying them any mind. Whenever Yuuri went out, he always found himself at the coast at some point, going for one of the benches by the sand, sitting with his right foot tucked under his left leg (Yuuko used to laugh at that habit, joking he couldn’t even sit straight). Viktor sat next to him at a respectful distance, and after a while of stillness took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

“Don’t tell Yakov about this.” He smiled crookedly and winked, and Yuuri wanted to find it endearing, but really he just felt sorry for how tiring it must be to have to smile all the time. “Do you want one?”

Yuuri didn’t care one way or another, so he took a cigarette and let Viktor light it. “How is everyone back at the shatterdome?” He asked, if only to give himself some time before Viktor decided to finally say what he’d come to. 

“Well, Yura and Mila are finally piloting a jaeger, the picture of young ranger arrogance if you ask me. Celestino and Minako actually just brought their Dancer over to stay there for a while, and Admiral Baranovskaya is talking about bringing Leo and Guang in as well. Not much going on, really. Oh, JJ quit the program and went back home to marry, which brings some peace of mind to us all at least.” Viktor sounded exhausted, despite the uneventful times. Yuuri himself just remarked how none of that could really constitute as good news, nothing ever did for them (even JJ marrying, it just screamed desperation to live a bit before the world officially ended). “How are things in the civilian life?” 

“The triplets are walking around, little devils almost giving Nishigori a heart attack every other day.” He loved his godchildren, but being with them was just too much sometimes. Too much energy to deal with, too much regret to swallow down, too much guilt for having the chance to see them growing up when Yuuko didn’t. “He is... functional. The pension he’s receiving is enough for now so he won’t have to get a job soon, but I think he should start doing something outside of just watching over the triplets. It would do him good.”

There was a tension in the air, because Viktor couldn’t have just come here to chit-chat. Yuuri considered putting him against the wall, calling him out on whatever _this_ was, but as his eye fell on the russian’s tired ones with dark bags under them he realized how cruel this would be. So instead he waited as more idle chat was made, talking about the triplets and if the kitchen back at the shatterdorme still made a great katsudon. It took almost twenty minutes before he actually turned to Yuuri, all pretence gone from his expression.

“I need to ask you a favor, Yuuri. I know it’s not gonna be something you will enjoy, and I could not blame you if you decided to never speak to me again.” He took a deep drag of his cigarette and looked down. “I need you to pilot my Jaeger with me.”

The worst part was that he wasn’t even shocked by this, though he was somewhat baffled Viktor would think there was even the slightest possibility of him ever setting foot on a jaeger again. And even if he did, he doubted they would want him, Yuuri was damaged goods. “Why? You have Yakov.”

Viktor’s face went dark and he stared straight into the waters. “After that day, he can’t go into a Jaeger again. All the radiation would kill him. It is killing him already in all honesty, just slower.” There was something absolutely depressing that one of the few rangers to get to old age would get destroyed by it nonetheless.

He pondered about it for a moment, both possibilities weighting in his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, feel free to ask questions/make comments!


End file.
